Foreign Digest: Romania, Philippines, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greenland

Romania: Romania last week banned the candidacy of the pro-Russian anti-migrant neo-Nazi presidential candidate who came in first in the first round of the Romanian presidential elections in December, which were overturned because of heavy Russian interference on behalf of the unknown independent who spent no campaign funds, as I had posted. They have been rescheduled for May. The ban was upheld by the Romanian high court. Another far-right candidate who opposed the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was also banned for her views that were incompatible with her constitutional duties. Philippines: The former President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, “the Filipino Trump,” was arrested on a warrant from the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity for his policy of encouraging the murder of suspected drug dealers. Thousands of Filipinos were killed, including those who were not drug dealers. President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. cooperated with the arrest. His running mate and Vice President, who is Duterte’s daughter, was impeached for threatening to kill Marcos, as I had posted. Serbia: There have been mass protests by Serbians against the corrupt, authoritarian pro-Russian Serbian President. Bosnia and Herzegovina: The President of the Republica Serpska, the Bosnian Serb entity of the multi-ethnic State of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was charged with attacking the constitutional order. Serb-dominated Yugoslavia had fought a war against Bosnian independence, like most of the other former Yugoslav Republics that sought independence from Communist Yugoslavia after 1991. The war resulted in a partition into Serbian and Croatian-Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) autonomous entities in Bosnia. Serbia is often accused of interfering in some of its former constituent parts. Greenland: A center-right party that favors gradual independence for the self-governing Danish country of Greenland won the most votes and seats in the Greenlandic parliamentary elections last week. The party, like the other leading parties across the political spectrum, whether they are pro-independence or not, is opposed to Donald Trump’s pressure for the arctic island to become United States territory. It will have to form a coalition with other parties, as it was well short of a required majority to form a government. The pro-American party failed to meet the threshold to win any seats in the assembly. Trump has threatened to seize the island by any means, including by force. There was a protest at the U.S. Consulate in Nuuk today. Denmark is an ally of the United States as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The U.S. already has a military presence in Greenland. The imperialist Trump has also threatened to use force to take the Panama Canal and is pressuring Canada to join the American Union as a state.